Published 6:57 am, Saturday, November 1, 2014

Plainview’s new Andalucia Nuts Co. plant should begin production later this month, according to David Fish, plant manager.

Speaking to the Plainview/Hale County Economic Development Corp. at its quarterly board meeting Friday, Fish said 12-15 local employees have been busying during the past several months transforming the former fiberglass facility into a nut processing plant.

“It’s been a long, drawn-out process, but after a year and nine months at it, we are about ready to get portions of the plant up and running within the next 30 to 60 days,” Fish reported.

In fact, he said the line handling specialty nuts, such as honey-roasted peanuts, almonds and cashews, could start up in the next two weeks. The north end of the plant, which will handle various nut butters and granulated product lines, will take longer.

“We’ll probably bring it on line after the first of year, when we are ready to start roasting. It will be our big volume line.”

Houston-based Andalucia Nuts is owned by the Zennie family, which has operations in Spain and Lebanon.

“We have been taking the time that was needed to renovate our building so that it would meet the new higher standards for a food processing facility,” Fish said. “Our building is a very sound structure, but you must realize it’s about 30 years old. I was first introduced to it while it was Plainview Produce, and later as U.S. Fiberglass.”

Fish admits that food processing standards became very stringent following problems experienced at Peanut Corporation of America, which operated a local facility.

“We are not a rebirth of PCA,” he says emphatically. “Andalucia Nuts has nothing to do with PCA. We’re an entirely brand new entity to Plainview, although I do have four or five employees who once worked for them.”

Once the new Anadlucia plant is fully up and running, Fish anticipants it will employ 120 to 150 people working three shifts.

“We currently have a deficit in processing capacity in the United States,” he notes, with about 60 percent of the nut processing being done in Europe.

“Plainview is a good place to do business for us,” he says. “We won’t be boxed in like we are in Houston, and this community is very business friendly.” He adds that Plainview is strategically located along I-27, with easy access to both I-40 and I-20. “We can load a container here and have it in Houston the same day,” he notes.

Asked about production capacity, Fish said the specialty line will be able to process about a ton of product per hour with the butter line producing about 10,000 pounds per hour. “That translates into about one-half million pounds of product a day or 1 to 1.2 million per week. And most plants operate no more than 48 weeks a year, and are down at least three weeks a year for maintenance.”

Since most of the nuts will be arriving at the Plainview plant pre-shelled, there shouldn’t be a lot of residue to deal with, Fish notes. “About the only thing we’ll need to dispose of are peanut skins.”

He anticipates a retail outlet store being added to the local plant in the near future. “We probably will end up building another building to the side for the outlet store and our offices, and turn our existing office space into a lab area.”